Lindemans Gin Kriek with a new Spirit

I like kriek beer; I appreciate it’s fruity cherry flavour and also its lightness, which makes it a great refreshment on hot summer days. Still, I have at times caught myself wondering what it would be like if that kriek in my hand had a little more, you know, boom to it. If it was a bit stronger, like ‘proper’ beer.

Now, there is – sort of – a kriek with a lot more boom: The Lindemans brewery, well-known and liked for – amongst others – their fruity beer, have teamed up with the De Moor distillery to create Lindemans Premium Gin.

We were lucky enough to be invited to a tasting at the Green Lab Bar in Brussels, where our cocktails were mixed by none other than famous Belgian gin guru Manuel Wouters (pictured above), whom some of you may know from his TV show “In 80 Gins around the world” (no joke!), and who created special recipes for the occasion (you can find them below, at the end of the post).

The special thing about this spirit: It’s made with Old Kriek distillate. Yes, that means it’s a gin made (partly) out of beer – nice, right?

There are two different kinds: A clear – you could say ‘classic’ – one, and a cherry-red gin. We enjoyed the clear one, but, to be perfectly honest, we probably would not be able to single it out in a blind tasting.

Now the red one, that’s a different story: It has a rather special taste to it – in a good way. You should definitively try a sip of it pure before mixing it with tonic.

Talking about mixing: Below are, as promised, two recipes from gin guru Manuel Wouters; if you are looking for more information about the production process of the gin itself, you can find all you need to know at the Lindemans website here.

Lindemans Clear Gin & Tonic recipe

Ingredients:

4,5 cl Lindemans Gin

125 ml Tonic

Pink grapefruit

A few rosemary needles

Preparation:

Fill the glass with large ice cubes and then slowly pour the tonic over the ice. Garnish with a wedge of pink grapefruit and some rosemary needles.

Lindemans René Royal

Ingredients:

3 cl Lindemans Red Gin

3 cl fresh pink grapefruit juice

1 cl of liquid sugar

Sparkling wine

Lemon zest

Preparation:

Add the gin, the grapefruit juice and the liquid sugar in an ice-filled mix glass. Close the shaker and shake vigorously. Strain the cocktail into the wineglass and gently pour in the sparkling wine. Cut the zest into thin stripes and place them on the surface of the cocktail.